One of the greatest side benefits of climate action is that it creates a lot of jobs. Not only that — it creates a lot of well paying jobs. Solar installers, solar panel manufacturers, wind turbine technicians, electric vehicle engineers, electrical engineers, and the list goes on. But how many jobs? And how well do they pay?
Renewable energy is already cheaper than other energy options in most of the world, but it comes with other economic and societal benefits as well. Because of the number of countries investing in renewable energy, the complexity of their national economies and their energy infrastructure details, it isn’t possible to cover everything in one online article. The subject would be better addressed in a book. So, this article is intended only to be a snapshot of some key high-level points.
Goldwind Americas, a division of China’s largest manufacturer of wind turbines, will offer free training in the wind power industry to unemployed coal miners in Wyoming, which is far more than the state government is doing.
We’ve written a few times about how China has the opportunity (and seems to be taking it) to increase its global influence and power thanks to the Trump presidency. There are various avenues for achieving that, but the largest of them seems to be Trump’s science denial and absurd ideas regarding global warming and sensible climate action.
Now, another global superpower is following suit with this opening, but much more directly.
To be fair, we don’t yet know what Donald Trump’s precise climate approach will be, but it seems all but guaranteed that he will slow and obstruct climate action and will do a great deal to increase pollution and CO2 emissions from out-of-date oil, coal, and gas industries. This is idiotic not just because it puts all of human society at great risk, but also because it’s one of the worst economic moves a politician can make.
Editor’s Note: In episode #27 of Cleantech Talk, Matthew and I enjoyed highlighting that the fastest growing job in the USA is now a cleantech job — wind turbine technician. We probably didn’t have quite as much fun talking about global warming–induced or global warming–exacerbated forest fires, drought, and pine-beetle infestation, and the ways in … [continued]
Out of an obsession for alliteration, I almost made the title of this article: “Wind willy woks fo’ winners.” But I was afraid the Elmer Fudd impersonation wouldn’t come across right, or that it was simply too cartoonish of an idea. Anyhow, the point is the same: wind jobs are bloody … [continued]
The wind industry has seen an impressive surge in growth over the past few years, thanks to government support, increasing technological proficiency, and decreasing costs. The natural extension of this growth is the need for more and more employees to fill technical roles — a healthy problem, but a concern … [continued]
Following up on the base jumping from wind turbines video I shared yesterday, here’s a video on working as a wind turbine technician for wind energy giant Vestas (or working as a wind turbine technician, in general). Maybe a little PR behind it, but looks like a nice job (definitely … [continued]
